Cristiano Ronaldo avoids scare as Bruno Fernandes brace sends Portugal to Qatar

Bruno Fernandes struck twice to send Portugal to a sixth successive World Cup finals.

Fernandes may have struggled at United this season, but showed his enduring quality on the international stage in Porto to seal Portugal's place in Qatar. Goals from the Manchester United playmaker in either half saw Portugal through and denied North Macedonia a World Cup debut and a second major scalp inside a week.

North Macedonia had caused a major upset in the play-off semi-finals by knocking out European champions Italy, courtesy of an added-time goal from Aleksandar Trajkovski. But against Portugal there was to be no repeat of those heroics, as Fernando Santos's side made their superior class tell, to book their place in Friday's draw for the World Cup finals.

Yet just as they did against Roberto Mancini's side, North Macedonia set about thwarting and frustrating Portugal early on, dropping deep, defending in numbers and pressing when out of possession. North Macedonia goalkeeper Stole Dimitrievski also began time-wasting after just 10 minutes, his frequent stalling tactics met with boos and howls of derision from the 50,000-strong partisan home crowd.

Blagoja Milevski's side were arguably stronger than in the win over Italy, welcoming back their star player, Napoli midfielder Elif Elmas, who was suspended from the game against Italy. But this was a step too far for the side ranked 67th in the world, Portugal's experience and quality giving them the edge, the Euro 2016 winners easing through on what ultimately proved to be a comfortable night.

The first chance of the game fell to the hosts in the 14th minute, Liverpool forward Diogo Jota picking out Cristiano Ronaldo, the Manchester United star taking his shot first-time but dragging the left-foot effort wide of the target. Ten minutes later and it was the turn of Jota to spurn a goalscoring opportunity, sending a header down and over the bar from a Fernandes corner, as Portugal began to pile the pressure on their opponents.

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The opening goal duly came in the 32nd minute, a wild ball from Stefan Ristovski intercepted by Fernandes, who exchanged passes with United team-mate Ronaldo, before steering a composed finish beyond the reach of Dimitrievski.

Portugal were in control from that point on, the game won with 25 minutes to go when Fernandes claimed his second goal of the night, Jota crossing for the United star to apply a first-time half-volleyed finish into the net.

The second goal gave Portugal the breathing space they needed to see the game out and afforded Santos the luxury of taking off Jota with 13 minutes left, with Fernandes following soon after.